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THE FOUNDERS OF OHIO 



BRIEF SKETCHES 



FORTY-EIGHT PIONEERS 



WHO, UN^DER COMMAND OF GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM 
LANDED AT THE MOUTH OF THE MUSKINGUM RIVER 



SEVENTH OF APRIL, 1788 



AND COMMENCED THE FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT IN 
THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY 



CINCINNATI 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO 

1888 



I 



THE FOUNDERS OF OHIO 



BRIEF SKETCHES 



FORTY-EIGHT PIONEERS 



WHO, UNDER COMMAND OP GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM 
LANDED AT THE MOUTH OF THE MUSKINGU3I'rIVER 



SEVENTH OF APRIL, 1788 



AND COMMENCED THE FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT IN 
THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY 



rv, ^. ^w.^'-'--' Cv-ci^ ...-;•"-... 









CINCINNATI 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO 

1888 






In E^xch. 

In the preparation of these sketches the author has freely used the ex- 
cellent historical works of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, "Pioneer History " and "Lives 
of the Early Settlers of Ohio." Some facts were obtained from the "History 
of Washington County, Ohio," some from the "History of Danvers, Massa- 
chusetts," and many from unpublished manuscripts. 



CorYKIGIIT, 1888, BY IvOBEIlT ClAKKE & Co. 



THE FOUNDERS. 



[The Founders of Ohio landed from their boat, the Mayflower, at Marietta, April 
7, 1788, and established the first English settlement in the NQrth-%vestern Territory. 
Oyo was the Indian name of the Ohio.] 

The footsteps of a hundred years 

HaA'e echoed, since o'er Braddock's Road, 

Bold Putnam and the Pioneers 
Led History the way they strode. 

On wild Monoiigahela's stream 

They launched the Mayflower of the West, 

A perfect State their civic dream, 

A new New World their pilgrim quest. 

When April robed the Buckeye trees 

Muskingum's bosky shore they trod; 
They pitched their tent, and to the breeze 

Flung freedom's star-flag, thanking God. 

As glides the Oyo's solemn flood 

Their generation fleeted on ; 
Our veins are thrilling with their blood, 

But they, the Pioneers, are gone. 

Though storied tombs may not enshrine 

The dust of our illustrious sires, 
Behold, where monumental shine 

Proud Marietta's votive spires. 

Ohio carves and consecrates 

In her own heart their every name; 
The Founders of majestic States — 
Their epitaph — immortal fame. 

— W. IT. Ven.akt.e. 

(iii) 



INDEX. 



Barlow, Jabez, 
Bushnell, Daniel, 
Coburn, Phineas, . 
Cooper, Ezekiel, 
Corey, Ebenezer, 
Cushing, Samuel, 
Cutler, Jervis, 
Dan ton, Israel, 
Davis, Daniel, 
Davis, Jonas, 
Devol, Allen, 
Devol, Gilbert, Jr., 
Devol, Jonathan, 
Dodge, Isaac, . 
Dodge, Oliver, 
Felshaw, Samuel, 
Flint, Hezekiah, 
Flint, Hezekiah, Jr., 
Foster, Peregrine, . 
Gardner, John, 
Gray, William, 
Griswold, Benjamin, 
Ivirtland, Elizur, 
Learned, Theophilus, 
Lincoln, Joseph, 
Martin, Simeon, 
Mason, William, 
Mathews, .John, 
Maxon, Henry, 
Meigs, Return Jonathan, 
Miller, William, . 
Moulton, Edmund, 
Moulton, William, 
Munro, Josiah, 
Porter, Amos, 
Putnam, Allen, 
Putnam, Jethro, 
Putnam, Rut'us, 
Shaw, Benjamin, . 
Sproat, Earl, 
Sproat, Ebenezer . 
Tupper, Anselm, 
Wallis, David, 
Wells, Joseph, 
White, llalheld, . 
White, Josiah, 
White, Peletiah, . 
Whitridge, Josiah, 



A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OE THE FOUNDERS 

OF OHIO. 



A FLEET of boats arrived at tlie month of the Muskingum 
April 7, 17S8, "consisting of the Union Galley, of forty- 
five tons burden, designed to pass and repass between this 
(Aluskingam) and Buflalo, or Short Creek, to bring down 
settlers; the Adelphi ferry boat, burden tliree tons, for the 
use of the settlers at the Post; and three log canoes of 
different sizes."* The fleet was under the command of 
General Rufus Putnam, and conveyed to this point the 
brave and energetic band of pioneers, forty-eight in num- 
ber, wbose mission it was to plant a Christian civilization 
in the midst of a savage wilderness, where they expected 
to make their homes. The directors of the Ohio Com- 
pany, under whose auspices they came out, had pur- 
chased of Congress a million and a-half acres of land, and 
proposed to begin the occupancy of their territory by plant- 
ing a city at the mouth of the Muskingum. To effect this 
purpose a body of picked men was engaged. The first 
detachment of these left Danvers, Massachusetts, Decem- 
her 3, 1787; the second went from Hartford, Connecticut, 
January 1, 1788. They were to meet at Sumrell's ferry, 
on the Youghiogheny river, and then proceed by water to 
their destination. 

Many of these first adventurers were share-holder's in 
the Ohio Company, and wisely desired to see the country 
before removing with their families into a i-egion so far in 
advance of population, and where danger might well be 
apprehended. Great care was taken to admit none but 
respectable characters, who would make valuable members 



* Letter of Gen. Putnam to Dr. Cutler. 



6 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

of the community about to be established. Tu a memo- 
randum book of Dr. Manasseii Cutler, one of the directors 
of the Oliio Company, is a list of thirty-seven men engaged 
"to go into the Ohio Country, if wanted." Twenty of 
those who came were selected from this list; among them, 
three carpenters and two blacksmiths, a class of men best 
calculated to build up the projected city, and without whom 
no civilized community could long exist. Dr. Cutler writes 
to Major Sargent, on September 29, 1787 : " More than one 
hundred and fifty have applied to me to go this autumn on 
the terms we agreed on at the last meeting. They have 
almost refused to take a denial. The men I have engaged 
are equal to any I would have chosen." 

The winter of 1787-8 was one of uncommon severity, 
and the snow on the mountains they were obliged to 
traverse was of such unusual depth that the men who 
left Dan vers in charge of Major Ilaffield AVhire had to 
abandon their wagons and construct sledges to transport 
their tools and baggage over the Alleghanies, and it was 
near the last of January, after a most fatiguing march, 
that they arrived at Sumi-ell's ferry. The party from 
Hartford, conducted by Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, found 
the mountain roads incumbered by a recent heavy fall of 
snow, three feet deep. They also left their wagons, and 
with their horses in single file, attached to stout sleds, pre- 
ceded by the men on foot to break a ti'ack for the teams, 
passed the mountain ranges after two weeks of inces- 
sant labor and a march which for hardy endurance and 
heroic fortitude has not been often equaled. They reached 
the Youghiogheny on the 14th of February. General Put- 
nam found of the first party a number ill with small-pox, and 
the saw-mills frozen up. It was six weeks before the flotilla 
was completed that was to carry them to the Muskingum. 

Who were these men who made their way across the 
mountains through the pathless snow in midwinter, and 
found themselves, without a roof to shelter them, that 
April morning one hundred years ago on the spot where 
Marietta now stands? . Are not their very names forgotten 
by the present generation ? Aiul yet the records of the 



The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 7 

past give evidence tliat many of them are worthy of being- 
held ill lasting remembrance. The following items, gleaned 
from authentic sources, give an epitome of the personal 
history of the forty-eight as far as a careful investigation 
of historical records at hand will afford. Doubtless other 
interesting facts may be added. 

General Riifas Patnam, the leader of this band of pioneers, 
was ap})ointed b}'' the directors of the Ohio Company No- 
vember 23, 1787, " Superintendent of all the business re- 
lating to the settlement of their lands in the Territory 
IsTorth-west of the Ohio." His military record is thus 
given b}' the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, of 
which he was a member. " liufus Putnam. Born Sutton, 
Massachusetts, April 9, 1738 ; died Marietta, Ohio, May 4, 
1824; a mill-wright; a private soldier in the campaigns 
1757-60, in Canada; then settled in New Braintree, Massa- 
chusetts; Lieutenant-Colonel in Brewer's Regiment May, 
1775 ; employed as an engineer in constructing the siege 
works around Boston ; chief engineer of the defenses of 
New York in 1776 ; Colonel August 5, 1776, and com- 
manded the 5th Regiment until commissioned Brigadier- 
General January 7, 1788 ; distinguished himself at Sara- 
toga ; aide to General Lincoln in quelling Shay's rebellion ; 
one of the founders of Marietta, Ohio, in 1788; appointed 
a judge in the North-western Territory, 1789 ; re-appointed 
Brigadier-General May 4, 1792 ; United States Surveyor- 
General 1793-1803; Member of Ohio Constitutional Con- 
vention, 1802." His military record, his services as a Judge 
and Surveyor-General of the United States, his bravery, 
good judgment, and unquestioned integrity are too well 
known to require comment. He was a director of the 
Ohio Company, in which he owned live shares of laud. He 
laid the foundations at Marietta, where he spent the re- 
mainder of his life honored and beloved. In his eighty- 
seventh year he was called to his reward, and his remains 
were i-everently laid to rest in the Mound Cemetery. He 
left numerous and worthy descendants. The Life of 
Rufus Putnam, prepared by Mary Cone was published 
1886. 



8 The 31emory of the Founders of Ohio. 

Major Haffield White was appointed by the directors of 
the Ohio Company commissary and conductor of the first 
party of pioneers who left Danvers, December 3, 1787, and 
shared with them the hibor and suffering attending the 
long march over the snow-clad mountains of Pennsylvania. 
He was a soldier of the revolution, and " served as a Lieu- 
tenant in Hutchinson's Regiment ; and as Captain in Put- 
nam's (5th) Regiment, and rendered distinguished services 
at the battle of Lexington, at the crossing of the Dela- 
ware, at Trenton, Hubbardtou, and at Saratoga," and was 
made a Major at the close of the war. He was a member 
of the Society of the Cincinnati. Mnjor White owned 
three shares in the Ohio Company. He was robust, active, 
and prompt in the execution of business. During the first 
year after his arrival at Marietta he continued to act as 
steward for the company, and also built for himself a 
house in Campus Martins. The next year, with Colonel 
Robert Oliver and Captain John Dodge, he erected mills 
on Wolf Creek, which were the first ever built in Ohio. 
On the breaking out of the Indian war, these mills being 
in a very exposed situation, were abandoned, the owners 
taking refuge at Marietta. On the return of peace he set- 
tled on land he owned near the mills. These also eventu- 
ally became his property. Major White was a useful citi- 
zen noted for his industry and integrity. He died Decem- 
ber 13, 1817. 

Peletiah White, son of Major Haffield White, came to 
Marietta April 7, 1788. He married Susan Wells, the sis- 
ter of Joseph Wells, a fellow-pioneer. During the latter 
part of the Indian war Mr. White served as a ranger or 
spy. He inherited his father's estate, was an elder in the 
Presbyterian church, and a most estimable, christian man. 

Joseph Wells was one of the forty-eight. His father, 
James Wells, with a large family, soon joined him at 
Marietta, where the parents and a sister died of small-pox. 
The family were in Campus Martins during the war. They 
all married respectably, and remained in the country. 

Caj)tain Ezekiel Cooper, horn. Danvers, Massachusetts, was 
a share-holder in the Ohio Company, and came on in 



The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 9 

Major White's party. " He was an "Ensign in Tlntcliin- 
son's regiment at the siege of Boston; Lieutenant in Put- 
nam's (5th) regiment, 1777-82 ; commissioned Captain in 
Sproat's (2d) regiment, January 7, 1783; removed to Ohio 
in 1788; living in Warrentown, Olno, in 1807." Cai)tain 
Coo})er was in command of the galley sent \\\) the Ohio 
river to bring to Marietta the families who arrived at that 
place August 19, 1788. He was a member of the Society 
of the Cincinnati. 

Josiah Whitridge, a carpenter, was also from Hanvers. 
He served under Captain Samuel Flint at the battle of 
Lexington, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. 
He was one of the forty-eight. 

Amos Porter^ born in Danvers, February 20, 1769, was 
one of those who landed at Marietta on the 7th of April, 
1788. His name is found on the list of share-holders of 
the Ohio Company. After two years residence in the Ter- 
ritory, he returned on foot to his eastern home, and in 1795 
came back with his father's family. He married Sabra 
Tolman, and his was the first family that settled in Salem 
township, where he became a prosperous farmer. Mr. Por- 
ter was a man of much energy, benevolence, and integrity. 
He was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian church. 
The last survivor of the pioneer band, he died November 
28, 1861, aged ninety-two years. 

Allen Putnam, from Danvers, Massachusetts, was also 
one of the pioneer party, and a share-holder in the Ohio 
Company. He married Anna Porter, the sister of his 
friend Amos Porter. He owned a farm near Stanleyville, 
in Fearing township, where he settled about 1797. Mr. 
Putnam was a ship-carpenter by trade, and met his death 
by falling through a hatchwa}', while at work at Ma- 
rietta. 

Captain Jethro Putnam, of Danvers, had performed 
meritorious services in the Revolutionary army, and en- 
dured the hardships and losses incident to the war, and 
now turned his attention to tiie new west. He owned a 
share in the Ohio Company, and came on with the tirst 



10 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

pai'ty of emis^rants. " Captain Putnam and Captain 
William Gray fnrnished a pair of oxen and two horses for 
the use of the Companj", for which service they were to be 
paid in lands, if agreeable to the Directors, or the teams 
to be appraised and purchased," AVhen that party started, 
Captain Putnam had charge of the wagons and men. He 
is mentioned as one of the grand jnrors at the court held 
at Marietta, September 9, 1788, after which we have been 
unable to trace him. 

Captain William. Gray was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, 
March 26, 1761. He entered the army as a private soldier 
at the age of seventeen years, and was promoted for good 
conduct. At the storming of Stony Point, he was one of 
the iirst to scale the walls of that fortress. He was the 
nephew of "William Gray, one of the richest merchants in 
Boston, for whom he was named, who always manifested a 
great interest in his success in life. He married Miss 
^lary Diamond, of Salem, Massachusetts, and in the au- 
tumn of 1787, he joined the Ohio Company and came west 
with the first pioneer band that left ITew England, having 
one of the fam.ous wagons labeled "For Ohio," in his par- 
ticular charge. His family did not come to Marietta until 
1790, when he established himself at Waterford. 

At the beginning of the Indian war, he was chosen com- 
mander of Fort Frye, which had been erected for tl^pe se- 
curity of the inhabitants of that place, and into which they 
were then compelled to take refuge. The situation was 
peculiarly exposed, as the savage war parties could descend 
the Muskingum, silently and swiftl}', in their light canoes, 
and thus elude the rangers who daily patrolled the woods 
to discover signs of their presence. This remote out-post 
was repeatedly visited by the enemy, horses were stolen, 
and cattle wantonly slaughtered, and on one occasion, the 
fort was attacked with great vigor, but the assailants were 
repulsed, and only one of the inmates, Wilbur Spragne, 
was wounded, who recovered after a long and painful ill- 
ness. The members of the garrison had many narrow es- 
capes, and one of their number, Daniel Convers, was taken 



The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 11 

prisoner and carried into captivity. It was in a irreat 
measure due to the prudence and vigilance of Captain Gray 
that this post suffered no greater loss during the war. On 
tlie return of peace, he settled on a farm near the town of 
Beverly, where he reared a large and respectable famil}', 
and died there in 1812. 

Another of Major Ilaffield White's party, was John Gard- 
ner, a young man from Marbloheiid, who was the son of a sea 
captain, and had been bred a sailor. lie came west, as did 
many others, in search of fortune and adventure. In the 
spring of 1789, he joined the Waterford association and 
drew his lot on the fertile peninsula, where Major Dean 
Tjder and Jervis Cutler's lots were located. He and Jer- 
vis Cutler agreed to assist each other in clearing their land, 
and were making good progress when one day, while the 
latter was absent at Marietta, Gardner was seized by a 
party of Shawnees, who took his gun, and hurried him 
into the woods, where at some distance their horses were 
concealed. They were all mounted but one, who walked 
and led the prisoner by a rope around his neck; in this 
they took turns. At the close of the lirst day they gave 
him a little jerked meat, juid having carefully secured him 
by making him lie upon a stout sapling which they bent 
down and fastened to the ground, with his hands tied be- 
hind him with leather thongs, while another cord bound 
him to the trunk, his captors laid down to sleep. He made 
no attempt that night to escape, but after the next day's 
weary march, finding themselves beyond the fear of pur- 
suit, they encamped early, shot a bear and a deer, built a 
lire, roasted the fi.esh with which they regaled themselves, 
and gave him a plentiful repast. They endeavored to per- 
suade him to remain quietly with them, painted his face 
and cut off part of his hair, and promised to make him a 
good Shawnee, but were not unmindful of the necessity of 
securing him as before. That night the rain fell gently and 
moistened and made more pliable the thongs with which he 
was bound, and he determined, if possible, to escape. By- 
cautious and long continued effort, he succeeded in releas- 
ing himself, without one of the bells which they had fast- 



12 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

ened to the limbs of the sapling sounding the alarm. Tak- 
ing his gnn from the side of one of the Indians sleeping 
near him, he stepped out into the dark forests and walked 
till morning in the direction of home, then taking an east- 
erly coarse, he came to a branch of Wolf Creek, which he 
followed down to the mills, where he was joyfully wel- 
comed, as his four days' absence had occasioned serious 
alarm for his safety. The next morning, he and Cutler, 
who had returned the same evening from Marietta, renewed 
their woodland labors with renewed spirits. Mr. Gard- 
ner, like most sailors, when land-bound, longed for the 
sea; he went back to Marblehead, and was soon in his 
father's ship afloat on the ocean, doubtless preferring to en- 
counter the ills he knew, than those he knew not of. 

Jervis Cutler was the son of Dr. Cutler, one of the Di- 
rectors of the Ohio Company. Dr. Cutler's published 
journal sa^'^s, " Monday, December 3, 1787. This morning 
a part of the men going to Ohio met here (at his house in 
Ipswich Hamlet), two hours before day. I went on with 
them to Danvers. The whole joined at Major White's. 
Twent}^ men employed by the Company, and four or five 
on their own expense, marched at eleven o'clock. This 
party is commanded by Major White. Captain (Jethro) 
Putnam took the immediate charge of the men, wagons, 
etc. Jervis went off in good spirits." The Rev. G. W. 
Kelly, who for sixteen years filled the pulpit at Hamilton, 
formerly Ipswich Hamlet, in a recent letter, says : "An es- 
teemed lady, Mrs. P. Roberts, often informed me about the 
company which left Hamilton an hundred years ago to 
make a settlement in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. 
A wagon appeared in the highway in front of Dr. Cut- 
ler's house, covered with black canvas, but it had on both 
sides of it painted in white letters, 'For Ohio.' As the 
home of Mrs. R. was directly opposite that of Dr. Cut- 
ler, she coujd see all that took place. The wagon was 
drawn by oxen, a team most likely to be useful when snow 
fell on the way." Temple Cutler stated his recollections 
thus : " The little band of pioneers assembled at Dr. Cut- 
ler's house, and there took an early breakfast. About the 



21ic. Me^nory of the Founders of Ohio. 13 

dawn of diiy, tliey piiraded in front of the bouse, and after 
a short address from him, the men being armed, three vol- 
leys were tired, and the party went forward cheered 
heartily by the by-standers. Dr. Cutler accompanied them 
to Dan vers." 

Jervis Cutler had, at the age of sixteen, made a voyage 
to France, and now, at nineteen, he joined this company of 
adventurers, and was the first of the forty-eight who leajjcd 
on shore at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7, 1788. 
He was one of the associates who begun the settlement 
at Waterford, in the spring of 1789, and remained in the 
west until 1790, when he returned to New England and 
married Miss Philadelphia Cargill ; in 1802 he settled at 
Bainbridgc, Ohio, as a fur-trader. He was chosen Mnjor 
of Colonel McArthur's Ohio regiment in 180G, and en- 
listed a company for active service, of which lie was ap- 
pointed Captain. This company was ordered to New Or- 
leans in the spring of 1809. Soon after his arrival there, 
he was prostrated by yellow fever, and the United States 
Senate having refused to coniirm his appointment as Cap- 
tain, because of a charge that he had made speeches at- 
tacking the administration, he returned to New England. 
In 1812 he published a book entitled "A Topographical 
Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and 
Louisiana," with a " Concise Account of the Indian Tribes 
West of the Mississippi." In 1818, he again came west, 
and settled as an engraver of plates for hank notes, in Nash- 
ville, Tennessee. His first wife died in 1822. In 1824, he 
married Mrs. Elizabeth Chandler, of Evansville, Indiana. 
He died in Evansville, in 1844. His only sou, now living, 
is Dr. George A. Cutler, of Chicago. 

Isaac Bodge was the representative in the pioneer band 
of the large and respectable Dodge family who have for 
many generations resided in Essex county, Massachusetts. 
He came from "Wenham, but of his fate, history has made 
no record. 

Of Simeon Martin, of Chebacco, Massachusetts, another of 
the forty-eight, only this is known : lie owned a share 



14 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

ill the Ohio Compan}^ and " was to go into the country, if 
wanted, on his own hook." 

Henry 3Iaxon came to Marietta April 7, 1788, and went 
to Waterford at its first settlement. He and his wife occu- 
pied a block-house on the west side of the Muskingum, 
wdiich Major Dean Tyler had erected for the security of 
the settlers while engaged in cultivating their land. It 
was on the peninsula, one mile from Wolf Creek Mills. 
Major Tyler, a brave, intelligent, and worthy man, re- 
sided \\\i\\ the Maxons. When the Indian war burst upon 
them, so unexpectedly, on the long to be remembered night 
of January 2, 1791, wheu the settlement at Big Bottom 
was destroyed, they retired to Fort Frye, on the east bank 
of the river. Mr, Maxon eventually settled in Fearing 
township, and was an active and useful citizen. 

William Iloulton, of Newburyport, and his son, Edmund 
Moulion, weve members of Major White's party. Mr. 
Moulton owned a share in the Ohio Company, and subse- 
quently removed his- family to Marietta. During the In- 
dian war they dwelt in the garrison at the Point. When 
Captain Joseph Rogers, a noted ranger, was killed in 1791, 
and the alarm-guns were fired, the scene at this garrison is 
thus described by an eye witness. Col. Joseph Barker: 
" The first person for admittance into the central block- 
house was Colonel Sproat with a box of papei's, then came 
some young men wnth their arms, then a woman with her 
bed and children, then old Mr. William Moulton, aged 
seventy, with his apron full of old goldsmith's tools and 
tobacco. Close at his heels came his daughter Anna, with 
the china tea-pot, cups and saucers. Lydia brought the 
great Bible. But when all were in, their mother was 
missing. Where was mother? She must be killed! ISTo, 
says Lydia, mother said she would not leave the house 
looking so ; she would put things a little more to rights, and 
then she would come. Directly mother came, bringing the 
looking-glass, knives and forks." Mr. Moulton died dur- 
ing the war, in 1793. His son Edmund died in Marietta, 
August 26, 1822. 

Of Mr. Moulton's daughters we learn that Anna married, 



JVie Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 15 

late in life, to Dr. Josiah Ilart, a graduate of Yale College 
in 1762. lie was a sorgeou iu the Revolutionary army, 
and came with his family to Marietta, in 1796. On the 
formation of the Congregational Church here, he was 
elected a deacon, and was an intelligent. Christian gentle- 
man. Dr. Hart died in August, 1812, and his wife died a 
few hours after, and they were buried on the same day. 
His descendants are numerous and respectable. 

Lydia Moulton married, in 1802, Dr. William B. Leonard, 
born in London, in 1737, and bred a surgeon, in which ca- 
pacity he served in the British navy. He came to America 
about 1797, and to Marietta in 1801, where he died in 1806. 
He was very eccentric in dress and manners. 

Jonas Davis, from Massachusetts, was an intelligent and 
highly esteemed young man. Several of the forty-eight 
were, at times, in great peril from the savage foe, but Mr. 
Davis was the only one of the number who actually lost 
his life. He was an inmate of Stone's garrison in upper 
Belpre, was engaged to be married to a daughter of Cap- 
tain Isaac Barker, and had his wedding suit prepared, 
when one morning in February, 1795, he was killed by 
the Indians near the mouth of Crooked Creek, three miles 
from the garrison. His death occasioned the deepest sor- 
row. Four of his young friends, led by John James, one 
of the bravest and most skillful of their number, pursued 
the enemy for more than an hundred miles through the 
forest, and wounded one of them, whose war-whoop brought 
out more than a score of warriors encamped near the spot. 
James and his party finding themselves so far out-num- 
bered, were obliged to retreat. They were pursued by the 
Indians and their dogs, but favored by the darkness of the 
night, they eluded their pursuers and reached the garrison 
in safety to the great relief of their friends. 

Colonel Ebenezer Sproat. The Massachusetts Society of 
the Cincinnati, of which he was a member, thus gives his 
record : " Born at Middleborough, Massachusetts, 1752 ; 
died at Marietta, Ohio, Fehriniry, 1805 ; Major in Cotton's 
regiment May, 1775, at the siege of Boston ; in Francis' 
regiment in 1776; Lieutenant-Colonel of the 12th regi- 



16 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

meiit January 1, 1777 ; and September 29, 1778, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel commanding in Glover's Brigade at Trenton, 
Princeton, and Monmouth ; Inspector of Brigade under 
Steuben; emigrated to Ohio in 1788." "When stationed 
at Providence, in 1778, with Glover's Brigade of four regi- 
ments, he was said to be the tallest man in the Brigade, 
being six feet and four inches high, with limbs formed in 
nature's most perfect model. In the duties of his station 
he excelled as much as m size, being the most complete 
disciplinarian in the Brigade. His social habits, pleasant, 
agreeable manners, and cheerful disposition, rendered him 
a general favorite with the oflicers, as well as with the 
private soldiers who always followed with alacrity where 
he led." He performed many valuable services, and shared 
largely in the perils of the war. He married Catharine 
Whipple, daughter of Commodore Abraham Whipple. 
Congress appointed Colonel Sproat Surveyor for Rhode 
Island on the seven ranges of townships west of the Ohio 
river, which were to be placed in the market for sale, and 
he was engaged in this duty during the autumn of 1786. 
He was appointed a Surveyor for the Ohio Company, a 
service for which his hardy frame and great resolution 
eminently fitted him. He owned three shares in the Com- 
pany, and conducted those of the forty-eight adventurers 
who left Hartford, Connecticut, on the 1st of January, 1788, 
in their winter march across the Alleghanies. General 
Putnam was obliged to go to jSIev^' York on business for 
the Ohio Company, but joined them on the way, and at 
Sumrell's Ferry took command of both this and Major 
White's party, who all came down and landed at the mouth 
of the Muskingum, and pitched their tents in the woods, 
April 7, 1788. 

Colonel Sproat was the first sheriff of Washington 
County, which at that time extended from the Ohio river 
to Lake Erie, and westward to the Scioto. He filled 
this office with great dignity and propriet}^ for fourteen 
years, until the state government was formed. During the 
Indian war he had control of the military affairs in the 
county for the United States. He appointed the rangers, 



The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 17 

or Indian spies, and enrolled a company of soldiers for the 
defense of the colony. He was a liberal and active citi- 
zen, and his memory was held in grateful remembrance 
by all who knew him. His daughter married the Hon. 
Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, Michigan. 

Jabez Barlow, one of the forty-eight who came with Put- 
nam, and one of the associates that began the settlement at 
Waterford, in 1789, was a brother of Joel Barlow, the 
poet and diplomatist, who owned several shares in the Ohio 
Company. " The Barlows were what is known in Con- 
necticut as ' good stock ; ' that is, they were respectable 
land-holders, paid their tithes promptly, and gave no one 
occasion to speak ill of them." Jabez Barlow was un- 
married, and lived alone in a cabin on his clearing, a mile 
below Fort Frye, where he declined to take refuge after 
the Big Bottom massacre, because, he said, "as he had 
never harmed the Indians, they would not injure him." A 
narrow escape, on the 11th of March, 1791, when an as- 
sault was made upon the Fort, led him to change his mind 
and resort to it for safety during the war, after which he 
returned to New England. 

Peregrine Foster, Esq., from Brookfield, Massachusetts, 
one of the forty-eight, was born in 1749. He owned a share 
in the Ohio Company, and was employed by them as a sur- 
veyor. Previous to the Indian war he went East lor his 
family, but while on his way to Marietta he heard of the 
outbreak, and took refuge with them in ]\Ioriranto\vn, Vir- 
ginia, until 1796, when he removed to Belpre, Ohio, and 
established the first tavern and the first ferry across the 
Ohio at that place. He was a judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas prior to 1802, and died in 1804. A man of 
eminent worth, and a great loss to the community. 

Ebenezer Corey came with the first compau}-. He was a 
man of much enterprise and industry. It is recorded the 
first season that, " a piece of bottom land on the bank of 
the Ohio, belonging to Mr. Corey, had been harvested, and 
measured one hundred and four bushels of corn to the 
acre." He was the architect of the bridge over Tyber 
Creek, which was "twenty-five feet high, ninetj^ feet lono-, 



18 The. Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

and twenty-four feet wide, covered with hewn planks four 
inches thick." Colonel May writes, " It is called ' Corey's 
bridge,' in honor of the master workman. There is not so 
good a bridge, or any thing like it, betwixt it and Balti- 
more." Mr. Corey and his wife were in Campus Martins 
during the war, but afterward went to "VYaterford. 

Hezeldah Flint, of Reading, Massachusetts, was employed 
by the Ohio Company as the chief carpenter. His son, 
Hezckiah Flint, Jr., was "to go if room could be made for 
him." They both came in that pioneer company, but it is 
uncertain if both remained. The name of one Ilezekiah 
Flint is given as being in Fort Ilarmar dnring the war. 
He went to Cincinnati. 

Earl Sproat, one of the first pioneer band, was a relative 
of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat. He was a share-holder in the 
Ohio Compan}" and remained in the country as a settler. 
He was one of the petitioners to the Territorial Legisla- 
ture for an act of incorporation for the town of Marietta, 
which was granted, and approved by Governor St. Clair 
December 2, 1800, and Marietta was the first incorporated 
town in the ]^orth-west Territory. He was a director of 
the Marietta Bank, chartered February 10, 1808, of which 
Gen. Rufus Putnam was President, He was a subscriber 
to the fund for erecting the Muskingum Academy, and 
held the position of major in the Ohio militia. 

David Wallis, one of the original [doneers, was from 
Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was a man of a respectable fam- 
ily and character. A letter writer says of him : " David 
Wallis told me that on reaching Marietta he was attacked 
by small-pox, and he removed at once from the camp, and 
made his bed beside a log in the woods where food was 
brought to him until he was cured. He then concluded to 
return to Massachusetts, and he and another man crossed 
over the Ohio river and walked up to Pittsburg through a 
wilderness, where hostile Indians used often to hunt. Mr. 
Wallis then worked at a smelting furnace until he earned 
money to buy food, Avhile he made the journey on foot to 
his old home." Another writer states that he did not long 
remain there, as the charms of a sister of one of his late 



The Memory of fhr Foiuule.rs of Ohio. 19 

comrades, wlio in the meantime had emigrated westward, 
had made an im[)ression npon his mind tliat he could not 
forget; and so he again sliouldered his riHe and a second 
time visited Marietta, hut only to he rejected ; and he re- 
turned the way he came, a wiser, if a sa(hler man. He 
settled in Ipswich hamlet, and with ids family about him, 
would often, in his old age, tell of his long pedestrian tour 
to Ohio in search of a wife. 

Samuel Felshav) and Theophilus Learned were young men 
from Killingly, Connecticut, who joined the company 
"from a roving disposition and a desire to see the world." 
These were doubtless the " two men from Muskingum, be- 
longing to Killingly," that Dr. Cutler met in the street of 
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1788, when on his way 
to Ohio, as mentioned in his published journal. They wei'e 
not share-holders, but were engaged to the Company for 
six months from the 1st of January, 1788; and the time 
being out, and their curiosity satisfied, they returned home. 
Mr. Learned belonged to one of the best families in Kill- 
ingly. Mr. Felshaw w^as the son of Captain John Felshaw, 
" who kept a noted tavern in Killingly, and was long prom- 
inent in town and public affairs," and " died leaving a large 
landed estate to be divided among liis children. The tav- 
ern became the property of his son, Samuel Felshaw." 

Phineas Coburn, one of the first company of emigrants 
to Ohio, was the eldest son of Major Asa Coburn, a gallant 
ofiicer of the Massachusetts line, who, with two brothers, 
entered the army at the opening of the revolutionary w^ar. 
He retired from the conflict at its close with the raidc of 
nuijor; his brothers both died on the battle-field. Major 
Coburn owned three shares in the Ohio Company, and re- 
moved with his family to Marietta August 19, 1788, and 
was a valuable acquisition to the settlement. Phineas, his 
father, and family, joined the Waterford association, and 
on the commencement of Indian hostilities w'cre domiciled 
in Fort Frye, where Major Coburn died during the war. 
Early in 1795 the Coburns, with a few others, built a block 
house, and began to clear their farms on the fertile alluvial 
bottoms which border the Muskingum in Adams township. 



20 The 31cm,ory of the Founders of Ohio. 

Phineas made his permanent home in Morgan County, 
Ohio. The gallant General Dumont, of Indiana, an officer 
in the Union Army, claimed descent through his mother 
from Major Coburn. 

The ancestors of Ca'ptain Josiah 3Iunro, with several 
other emigrants, came from Scotland at a very early date 
and bought a large tract of land in Lexington, Massachu- 
setts, and settled there in company. They were from the 
highlands of Scotland. At the breaking out of the revo- 
lution Captain Munro, then recently married, was living 
on a farm in Peterborough, ll^ew Hampshire. The battle 
of Lexington was fought on the common in front of his 
father's door. Immediately after this battle he left his 
farm and joined the forces of the Colonies, and continued 
in the New Hampshire line during the war. He was at 
the capture of Burgoyne, and the surrender of Cornwallis. 
He was in 1783 one of the signers of the officer's petition 
to Congress for an appropriation of western lands in pay- 
ment for their services. On the formation of the Ohio 
Company he became a share-holder, and leaving his family 
at Amherst, ISTew Hampshire, he was one of the forty-eight 
who first came to Marietta. Before the Indian war his 
family came west, and during that calamitous period lived 
in the garrison at the Point. Captain Munro was a talented 
and useful man. He was the second post-master in Mari- 
etta, succeeding Hon. R. J. Meigs in that office, and hold- 
ing it from 1795 to 1801. He was also appointed a Judge 
of the Court of the Quarter Sessions of the Peace in 1796. 
His family settled in Muskingum County. His daughter 
married Colonel Daniel Convers, of Zanesville, Ohio. Cap- 
tain Munro's monument in Mound Cemetery, at Marietta, 
bears this inscription : " Captain Josiah Munro; born at 
Lexington, Massachusetts, February 12, 1745 ; died at Mari- 
etta, August, 1801. He was an officer in the Revolution- 
ary Army, and became the fi-iend of Lafayette, wlio recog- 
nized his services in the war by the gift of a sword. He 
was one of the original Ohio Company who landed at 
Marietta, April 7, 1788, and was appointed post-master at 



The 31emory of the Founders of Ohio. 21 

Marietta, 1794, which office he held at the time of his 
death." 

Benjamin Shaw was another of the first party. He 
served in a Danvers company of minute men, under Cap- 
tain Israel Hutchinson, at the battle of Lexington, and after- 
ward as a regular soldier in the Revolutionary Army. He 
came from Hampton, New^ Hampshire, and at a later date 
removed his family to the west. They were in Fort Frye 
during the war, and afterward settled on the rich Round 
Bottom. This farm next came into the possession of Boyl- 
ston Shaw, his son, who was one of the most successful 
and enterprising farmers in this region. Sally Shaw, a 
daughter of the pioneer, married Benjamin Dana, whose 
highly cultivated farm of fourteen hundred acres was per- 
haps the linc'st in the county. The lamented General Ben- 
jamin D. Fearing, of the Union Army, and the Hon. James 
W. Dawes, late governor of Nebraska, are among their de- 
scendants. 

Samuel Cashing, one of the forty-eight, came from New 
Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the brother of Mrs. Ben- 
jamin Shaw, and was related to the well known Sumner 
and Gushing: families of Massachusetts. He was a member 
of the Waterford Association, and one of the young men 
who remained during the war to aid in the defense of the 
settlers. He afterward married a daughter of Judge Gil- 
bert Devol, and settled on a farm on Round Bottom, where 
he died October 9, 1823. " His was the first death in the 
Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge; and the members, as a 
token of regard, wore a blue ribbon about the left arm 
from the time of his death to the next regular communi- 
cation." 

Cajytain Daniel Davis, from Killiugly, Connecticut, came 
on with General Putnam. He was a man in middle life, 
and was of a very respectable family. He had rendered 
useful and patriotic services during the Revolutionary War, 
and had suffered severe losses. He owned a share in the 
Ohio Company, and came to make a home for his family, 
who after their arrival lived at Fort Frye until the savage 
warfare ended, when his sons opened farms on the rich 



22 The Blemory of the Founders of Ohio. 

soil of Adams township. "Captain Davis was a man of 
wisdom and ex[)ei'ience, and his counsels were held in hio-h 
esteem." 

Major Joseph Lincoln came to Marietta, April 7, 1788 
He was born in Massachusetts in 1760, and had served in 
the Revolutionary army. While in garrison at Farmer's 
Castle, Belpre, he married Fanny, daughter of Capt. John 
Leavens, from Killingly, Connecticut. After the war he 
removed to Marietta, vt^here he established himself in bus- 
iness. " He at one time owned all the land on Ohio street, 
between Post and Front, and several lots on Front. In 
1807 he erected, on the corner of Front and Ohio streets, 
what was then the finest building in town. It was origin- 
ally a large, square brick house, with ornamental mantels 
and stuccoed ceilings. The building was arranged both for 
a dwelling and business house, but Major Lincoln died 
about the time it was finished." He was always known as 
Major Lincoln, but we have not the date of his commis- 
sion. In 1797, he subscribed twenty dollars toward build- 
ing the Muskingum Academy. He soon became one of 
the most successful merchants in Marietta. " He was a 
most excellent man." Tradition says that his daughter, 
Susan Lincoln, educated at the celebrated Moravian school 
at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was one of the most attractive 
and accomplished girls of her time. 

Captain William Mason was a native of Massachusetts; 
he belonged to the Forty-eight, and was one of the first to 
land at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7, 1788. He 
married, March 14, 1790, Susanna, daughter of Major Asa 
Coburn, and they w^ere in Campus Martins during the war. 
In the first organized militia at Marietta under Colonel 
Sproat, Mr. Mason was an orderl^^ sergeant; in 1797, Win- 
throp Sargent, acting governor, commissioned him lieuten- 
ant, and under a reorganization. Governor Arthur St. Clair 
appointed William Mason, gentleman, a lieutenant in the 
First regiment, 1801. When the new state government 
went into operation, he received a Ca[)tain's commission 
from Governor Edward Tiffin. He settled about 1797, in 
Adams township, and was prominent in the early conmiu- 



The Mem.ory of the Founders of Ohio. 23 

nity. Ilis fine farm was on the bottom and plain nearly 
opposite Upper Lowell, on the Muskin^rnm. Here he 
lived with his family of twelve children, and died there 
September, 26, 1813. Among his descendants was the late 
Colonel William B. Mjison, of Marietta, who entered the 
Union army, as private, in 1861, and returned in 1864, Col- 
onel oi" the 77th Ohio regiment. 

Oliver Dodge, one of the original pioneer party, came from 
Hampton Falls, l^ew Hampshire. He owned a share in 
the Ohio Company, and was, during the war, at Campus 
Martins. He joined the colony in Adams, in the spring 
of 1795, and in company with the Coburns, Davises, and 
others, began to level the heavy forests which then covered 
the land. He lived one year alone in a large, hollow syc- 
amore tree. In 1800 he married Mrs. Kancy (Devol) Man- 
chester. He left, at his death, a valuable farm to his 
only son, Richard Hubbard Dodge. Oliver Dodge's only 
daughter, Mary Manchester, became the wife of the Hon. 
Perley B. Johnson, M. D., of McConnellsville, who, in 
1843-5, represented his district in Congress. 

Among that body of sterling men who were bold and 
hardy enough to make the first settlement in the wilder- 
ness where Ohio now stands, there was no more remark- 
able or useful man than Captain Jonathan Devol. He was 
born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, in the year 1756. His 
biographer states that " his whole education was embraced 
in one year's schooling," but this was supplemented by his 
father's library of choice books, which he eagerlv read. 
When quite young he learned the trade of a ship carpenter, 
and became noted for his skill in constructing boats of a 
beautiful model, and famed for rapid sailing. One of these 
took a purse of fifty guineas in a race between some gen- 
tlemen amateurs of Newport and Providence. When the 
revolutionary war commenced he entered the army before 
he was twenty years old, and performed many daring, 
heroic services, which are on record, and were of o-reat 
value. On the formation of the Ohio Company he became 
one of the associates, and came with Colonel Sproat's party 
to Sumrell's Ferry, where General Putnam expected to find 



24 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

the boats ready to descend the river. The first party, un- 
der Major White, were to build the boats, but the mills 
were frozen up, and lumber not to be easily procured. In 
this juncture, Captain Devol's services were of the utmost 
importance; he surmounted the difficulties, and under his 
direction the " Union Galley,'' or as it was later called, the 
" Mayflower," was built and the adventurers committed 
themselves to the current of the river and were conveyed 
safely to their destination. Here his ingenuity, skill, and 
industry, were invaluable to the new settlement. 

Captain Devol was soon actively engaged in the con- 
struction of Campus Martins, an imposing structure, de- 
signed for a fortress and for dwellings. He erected a house 
for himself in one of the curtains of the fort. It was forty 
feet long, eighteen feet wide, and two stories high, and the 
next winter it sheltered, not onlj^ his own family, who had 
joined him, but, in all, seventy persons, old and young, 
were under its roof. In February, 1790, he settled on a 
small farm in Belpre, but in less than a year the Indian 
irruption drove the settlers into garrison, and Captain De- 
vol was called upon to plan, with the advice of other ex- 
perienced officers, the necessary defenses. This resulted in 
the erection of Farmer's Castle in an incredibly short time. 
In this garrison, which contained thirteen large block 
houses, thirty or forty families were sheltered during the 
war. The inhabitants had been obliged to grind tlieir 
corn on hand-mills, a most fatiguing and slow process; to 
remedy this inconvenience, he constructed a floating mill, 
which was anchored in the Ohio near the Castle. He also 
invented a mill to grind and press out the juice of corn- 
stalks to make molasses. 

In 1792 he built a twelve-oared barge for General Put- 
nam entirely of red cedar, which he procured a few 
miles up the Little Kanawha, at the hazard of his life, in 
the midst of the Indian war. This boat, for beauty of form 
and workmanship, was said to excel any other ever seen on 
the Ohio. 

In 1797 lie purchased land in Wiseman's Bottom, on the 
Muskingum, five miles above Marietta, wiiere he made him- 



The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 25 

self a comfortable and pleasant home. Here, again, he 
erected mills and engaged in ship-building. In 1801 he 
built for a merchant in Marietta a ship of four hundred 
tons, all of the wood of the black walnut. The next year 
he built two brigs, and in 1804: the schooner Nonpareil 
was built. Always anxious to aid the destitute colonists. 
Captain Devol purchased and put jn oiieration the ma- 
chinery for carding wool, and also erected works for dressing 
and fulling cloth — both oi>crations believed to have been 
the first in this part of Ohio, if not in the State. 

Amid all his enterprise and works of usefulness Captain 
Devol found time at the age of fifty years to study the 
French language, and with no aid but Boyer's Dictionary, 
learned to read and translate with fluency any book in 
that language. He entered upon the study of mathematics, 
of which he was very fond ; and his knowledge of geogra- 
phy was unusually complete ; he also made himself familiar 
with astronomy, in which he took great delight. He was 
remarkable for his conversational powers, his kindness, and 
hospitality. He died in 1824, aged 68 years, greatly 
lamented. 

Allen Devol, from Rhode Island, was a nephew of Cap- 
tain Jonathan Devol. He came with the first company to 
Marietta in 1788, and in the following winter he drew a 
donation lot, and joined the Waterford Association, who 
began their settlement in April, 1789. He married Ruth 
Jennings, and lived in the garrison until the close of the 
war, when he removed to his land on the productive al- 
luvial soil of Round Bottom, and settled on a farm near 
to those of Samuel Cushing and Benjamin Shaw. 

Gilbert Devol, Jr., one of the forty-eight, was the son of 
Hon. Gilbert Devol, a Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Rhode Ishuid, who soon came out with his family to the 
colony, and was a person of much influence and prominence 
in the community. Gilbert Devol, Jr., married Polly, 
daughter of Major Asa Cohurn. There were a number of 
Devols who came from Rhode Island in the early years of 
the settlement, and planted families in Washington County, 
to which they have given many respectable and valuable 



26 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

citizens; among whom maybe mentioned General H. F. 
Devol, of the Union Army, who was promoted from Cap- 
tain to Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General "' for gallant 
and meritorious services during the war." 

Major Anselm Tupper, son of General Benjamin Tupper, 
was born at Easton, Massachusetts, October 11, 1763. In 
1779, at the age of sixteen, he was appointed Adjutant of 
Colonel Ebenezer Sproat's regiment, which was engaged 
at Trenton, Princeton, and Monniouth. He served through 
the war, and was a member of the Society of the Cincin- 
nati. In 1786 he was with his father in the survey of the 
seven ranges, and when the Ohio Company was formed he 
became a share-holder, and was engaged by them as a 
surveyor, and " arrived at Marietta in the company of forty- 
eight, April 7, 1788." At the organization of the military 
companies at Marietta, in 1789, under Colonel Sproat, 
"Anselm Tupper was appointed Post Major,, and had com- 
mand of Campus Martins during the war." That winter 
he taught school in one of the block-houses of the fort. 
He was secretary of the Union Lodge of Free Masons, be- 
fore whom he delivered an address on St. John's day, 1790. 
Major Tupper was a brilliant man and a favorite in society. 
He died, unmarried, at Marietta, December 25, 1808. 

John Mathews was a ne[>hew of General Rufus Putnam. 
He Avas em}.)loyed in the survey of the seven ranges in 
1786. He was appointed a surveyor for the Ohio Company, 
and joined the expedition that landed at Marietta, April 7, 
1788, and was himself a share-holder in the Company. 
While engaged surveying in the lower part of the pur- 
chase, in Lawrence county, his camp was attacted by a 
party of hostile Shawnees, early in the morning of Au- 
gust 7, 1789. He had with him a guard of seven soldiers, 
all of whom were killed, except the corporal. Mr. 
Mathews' assistant was shot dead at his side, and he es- 
caped almost naked, and succeeded, with three or four of 
his party, Avho wei'e unhurt, in reaching Colonel 1\. J. 
Meigs, who was in a boat with a party surveying the Ohio 
river. This was the most serious disaster experienced by 
any of the surveying parties. Besides the loss of life, all 



The Memory of lite Founders of Ohio. 27 

the clothing, gnus, survej-ing instruments, and camp equip- 
age were lost. In 1792, Mr. Mathews was appointed su- 
perintendent of affairs at Gallipolis. In 1796, he married 
a daughter of Judge Dudley Woodbridge, of Marietta, 
and settled in Muskingum County, and became a success- 
ful farmer on a large scale. " He was one of the most use- 
ful, active, and clear headed men Ohio ever claimed for a 
citizen." 

Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs Avas one of the surveyors 
employed by the Ohio Company. lie was a " Colonel in the 
Revolutionary army, born at Middletown, Connecticut, 
December, 1740, died at the Cherokee Agency, Georgia, 
January 28, 1823; distinguished for exploit^at Sag Harbor,' 
and at the storming of Stony Point; served to the end of 
the war. He w^as one of the first settlers at Marietta, Ohio, 
m 1788. He was commissioner of clothing under General 
Wayne, in 1795. In 1802, Jefferson appointed him agent 
for Indian Affairs. The Indians called him the White 
Path." He was a member of the Society of the Cincin- 
nati. On his removal to Georgia, " the inhabitants of Ma- 
rietta parted with him very reluctantly, holding his person 
and virtues in the highest estimation. His upright, manly 
conduct, dignified manners, and kind heart, had enlisted 
all in his favor. During a long life of activity and useful- 
ness, no man ever sustained a character more irreproachable 
than Colonel Meigs. He was a pattern of excellence as a 
patriot, a philanthropist, and a Christian." His eldest son, 
R. J. Meigs, Jr., remained a citizen of Marietta ; he be- 
came a supreme judge, United States Senator, Governor of 
Ohio, .and Postmaster General of the United States. 
Six more names are found on General Putnam's list, 
these are Benjamin Griswold, Elizur Kirtland, William Mil- 
ler, Daniel Bushnell, Israel Danton, and Josiah White, which 
names probably belonged to men as good and true as the 
others, but which we have been unable to trace, and, there- 
fore, leave them to some more fortunate investigator. As 
to the actual number of men in the first parU% JoseiJi 



28 The Memory of the Founders of Ohio. 

Euell, orderly sergeant in Captain Strong's Company, at 
Fort Harmar, writes : "April 7 (1788). General Putnam 
arrived at this place with fifty men, to begin a settlement 
on the east side of the Muskingum." John Mathews, a 
surveyor, who had been with the party but a short time, 
writes on the same date : " Our whole party consists of 
forty-two men, surveyors and all." But General Putnam, 
who was the superintendent and responsible business man- 
ager of the Company, states : " The whole number of men, 
including myself, who arrived at Marietta, April 7, 1788, 
was forty-eight, among whom were four surveyors, viz : 
Colonel Sproat, Colonel Meigs, Major Tupper, and Mr. 
John Mathews. His list of names, forty-eight in all, is 
found in Dr. Hildreth's Pioneer History, and General Put- 
nam's statement has been accepted for an hundred years. 

Each share in the Ohio Company entitled the owner to 
eleven hundred and seventy-three acres of land, and a town 
lot. Members of the party of forty-eight pioneers, held in 
their own right, twenty-six shares, or about 30,000 acres of 
land, while some other men in the Company represented 
families, who, in the aggregate, had 20,000 acres more. 
They had, therefore, personal interests in the settlement, 
and came to look after their own property. One-fourth of 
these men held commissions in the Revolutionary Army, 
and had distinguished themselves in the service, and were 
now equally at home in civil life, as judges, or in other 
public offices, others were skilled artisans, successful mer- 
chants, and intelligent farmers. Their descendants may 
well be proud of their ancestry. 



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